Were there ever Roman Senators who were women?

by b3048099

If not, what prevented them from becoming senators? Are there any writings from women expressing frustration about the inequality between men and women?

XenophonTheAthenian

No. Senators were composed of men who had held a magistracy above the rank of quaestor, or those who had been specially enrolled (such as in Sulla's expansion of the senate to 600). By law magistracies could only be held by citizens, and while women held a form of citizenship rights they were not full citizens--they did not have the right to vote in popular assembly, the most fundamental right of citizenship.

Other than some poetry, most of which is fragmentary and of an elegiac or epigrammatic nature, we have next to no writing from Roman women. The only prose I can think of are some fragments of Cornelia's letters, provided that Nepos' quotations are genuine. None of these works discuss political inequality. Mind you, Roman women had it pretty well for the ancient world. While far from being equal, they held limited rights (provided they were citizens), including the right to property and divorce. That's way more than they had in most parts of the Greek world. We also know that women, despite not being legally allowed to enter into public affairs, were hardly uninfluential. Cornelia actively participated in the affairs of both her sons, being such a good advisor and rhetorician that Quintilian argued that the Gracchi owed their abilities as orators entirely to her influence, Livia was instrumental in the governing of the state under Augustus, and Agrippina basically ran the empire for Nero until he had her murdered.